The Egg
by wispedheart
Summary: It's been 3 years since Lucy's Deadly Nadder, Starfire, passed. Since then, her life has seemed to be nothing more than a joke. A dragonless Viking in a village of Dragon Riders. But when her old friend Natsu comes back from training, and begs her to go with him to see 'something she'll love' her whole life gets turned upside down.
1. Starfire

**HII! So, I had a crappy past month or so, which is why nothing got posted. But, I'm here now, and as a returning-from-hiatus treat for y'all, I made a new fanfiction ^.^ Yes, I will update the others XD But this one was for a contest that I missed the deadline for. Again, thank you, shitty month. So, here you go! HTTYD and FT CROSSOVER!**

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A growl echoed through the cave, bouncing off of the walls. The sound met the ears of the two invaders over and over. It seemed almost endless. And to make it worse, the first thought that came to the mind of the girl is that it reminded her of the sound of the rattlesnakes a trader had brought in once: deadly, and threatening. Crouching slightly, the girl sidestepped, putting out her free hand and feeling blindly. Despite the fact that she could have easily looked to the side to see in the low light of the lamp she held, worry held her too tightly to allow her to do so. A small sigh of relief fell from her mouth when she met the comforting feeling of scales underneath her hand. A small, bird-like squawk answered her, higher in sound than that of its opposing growl, and a thousand times more comforting. Her confidence bolstered as she switched the lantern to her left hand, reaching into her belt and pulled out her dagger, leaving her whip where it was on the opposite hip for now. Slowly, she started forward, the clack of claws on the stone following her in.

"We're okay," she whispered softly, her brown gaze shifting through the darkness. Another growl echoed out, menacing and foreign, causing the girl to raise her knife higher in defense, ready for whatever came out of the darkness, even as her hand tightened on the handle to stop the slight shake of the blade.

"Starfire!" she cried, and they both ran forward, the menacing growl rising into a roar the moment they moved.

After that, everything turned red.

"STARFIRE!"

Eyes snapped open, and Lucy sat straight up, chest heaving from the experience. Realizing that it had been a dream, the girl pulled her knees to her chest, tears rising to her eyes. A wracked sob was wrenched out of her, fingers clenching into her pants as if they were the only thing keeping her anchored to the world.

"Starfire..." she choked out, dropping her forehead onto her knees. Her hair pooled around her head, pieces sticking every which way from the night's sleep. It felt as though it were every night that she had that dream. It was always the same, never even changing a small breath of wind. In a way, that made it all the more terrible. The only day in her life she wished that she could forget ever happened was also the only one she could never escape from, not even in her sleep.

It had been years since Starfire had died. Three, to be exact. Back when Lucy had been headstrong, and overconfident, and thought going into a cave that everybody had warned her to avoid was a good idea. She thought that, having a dragon, her whip, and her shortsword, she'd be able to beat anything. She thought that she'd be the first in the village to find out what was in the cave, and finally earn a bit of recognition. Finally escape that "newbie" status that she couldn't seem to shake. She'd been stupid, to sum it up, and she'd lost Starfire because of it. At the very least, she wasn't the newbie anymore. Instead, she was the girl that everybody must tread softly around because her dragon had been horrifically killed.

Lucy still couldn't remember much of that night: just a growl, a splash of red, and a pain in her stomach before everything went black. She knew that Starfire had hit her with her tail to get her away from whatever it was that had killed her only moments later. Of course, she hadn't seen any of that. The village healer, Porylusica, had told her that that was what most likely had happened, while she pulled out the spines that Starfire had gotten stuck into Lucy's stomach in her haste to push her away. Nobody had questioned that conclusion. Still, knowing that Starfire had died saving her only made the pain worse, if possible.

Yanking up the motivation to move, Lucy pushed back the blanket, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed and onto the floor, standing slowly. She knew she should hurry, or she'd be late, but she couldn't find the inspiration to run, just yet. She was sure that Wendy wouldn't mind, but at the same time, the girl was probably already waiting outside with her Stormcutter, Grandine, as patient as ever.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Lucy made her way over to the small table in the back of the room, shivering slightly at the chill as her feet, only clad in stockings, hit the cold floor. Stopping by the table, she picked up the clothing articles placed atop it, pulling them on one by one. She finished off with her boots, slipping her foot inside and tightening the top tie to keep sure it wouldn't slip. Once dressed, she paused a moment, glancing down to be sure she was properly put together.

Her outfit consisted of a long sleeved cream shirt underneath a long blue sleeveless top and a shouldered leather harness that crossed over her chest. A weapon's belt cinched around her waist, holding her whip and her shortsword at her side. A leather skirt covered down to her mid-thigh, stockings replacing it just above the knee. They disappeared underneath boots wrapped in white fur, and cinched with blue ties.

All in all, they were much better than the long fabrics her father used to force her to wear to "keep warm". More like, to hide her from every man in the known world until he'd found one that had killed enough dragons to please him. In the end, those were only two of the reasons that she'd left Hysteria. It was also the reason that, since she came to Berk, the Chief, Makarov, had always had her hide whenever Hysteria attempted to raid. If her father found out that she was here, rather than dead as Hysterian villagers believed her to be, it would only make the disagreements of the two villages that much worse. The last thing Lucy wanted was to start a war, so she'd never argued against that decision.

Grabbing her helmet off of her bedpost, Lucy made her way to the door, fixing her hair the best she could with one hand as she walked. Pausing at the door, Lucy shoved her helmet on her head, letting it cover any frizz she had from the night's sleep before, and pulled open the door, stepping out into the morning bustle of Berk.

"Lucy!" a voice called from above her, a small laugh coming through with the word. Following the sound of the voice, Lucy looked up, finding the source of the voice perched atop her roof with her dragon, looking down at her curiously from behind the winged helmet she always wore, a gift from Erza and a somewhat forced Gajeel when Wendy had first come to Berk.

"Morning, Wendy," she replied, tilting her head up and giving the blue-haired girl a small smile. Grandine took that moment to crawl off of the roof, landing lightly on the ground and poking Lucy with her snout. "Hello to you too, Grandine," Lucy laughed lightly, patting the blue-tinted snout of the dragon before stepping to the side a bit and scratching behind one of the horns, knowing exactly where her favorite spot to be was. The Stormcutter rumbled contentedly, and a small squawk followed, a tiny white head poking out from behind Wendy's shoulder, somehow managing to look indignant despite the typical slightly bugged eyes of a Night Terror.

"Charle is coming along?" Lucy asked, continuing to absently scratch behind Grandine's horn, turning her gaze up to the Dragon Rider.

"Her tail finally healed up! So Porylusica told me that I could bring her with me to collect herbs today," her reply came as she lifted Charle off of her shoulder, setting her on the saddle behind Grandine's head. "Can you get up by yourself?"

"Yeah, I can," Lucy replied, letting her hand drop to her side as she moved around to the side of the dragon. "You know Grandine likes to help." As if to prove her point, she reached up, grabbing hold of her wing-claw tightly. Grandine obliged the unspoken request, lifting Lucy up easily and moving her over her back, letting her down to stand easily just behind the saddle.

"Thank you," she gave Grandine a small smile, and the Stormcutter looked back at her, letting out a grunt in reply. After this, it only took a moment for Lucy to settle herself in the saddle behind Wendy, and for the both of them to take off, two roars accompanying them, one large, one small and high pitched, almost harmonized with the morning noises of the forest.


	2. Blue Oleander

**Sorry this took so long to get out! I've been meaning to type it out, it just never happened XD I got busy. But, I plan on updating this one more often, as this is the fic (As well as Kitty Noir) that I'll be focusing on. The others are on hiatus, if you were waiting on those. Now, without further ado, The Egg chapter 2!**

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Lucy hadn't been quite sure which area they were going to for this herb, but it became apparent as soon as Grandine turned in the air that they were headed for the western forest. Leaning to the side a bit, she watched the ground pass by quickly below them, her hands gripping tight into the fabric of Wendy's tunic. "What herbs do you need?" she asked, trying to keep her voice level. Even without it, she could hear the slight waver that portrayed her feelings about flight. Every brush of wind, every wingbeat… all she could think of was Starfire.

"Just the essentials," Wendy replied, her voice raised to reach over the rush of wind. "And apparently there's some blue oleander over here too. I figured we could harvest some for the stores before we burn it off."

Even the name of that plant sent a shiver through Lucy's body. If that poisonous flower was growing on the island, it wasn't good, especially if a dragon decided to eat it. But Wendy was right, it would be good to have some on hand. Juvia's scauldron, Gray (unfortunately close to the name of another on of Lucy's friends… honestly, she wasn't sure from time to time whether they were talking about the dragon or the human) often aided in those situations, thankfully.

It didn't take long for them to get to the spot Wendy had told her about, and Grandine touched down among the trees, surprisingly graceful for a creature so large that she had to close her wings to even get in between the trunks. "Can you grab the oleander, please? I need to go nearby and grab some crosswort and fennel root. Charle will burn it for you when you're done, right girl?" Lifting her hands, she made a motion over at Lucy, and the Night Terror blinked once before getting the message, lifting off from her position on Wendy's shoulder and flapping over to Lucy, settling down on hers instead. Leaning a bit to compensate the extra weight, Lucy nodded.

"Okay," she said, turning and making her way towards the telltale blue plants. Crouching down, she ran her hand lightly over the smooth blue petals, her head tipping to the side. It was amazing how such a small thing had the ability to bring down such great creatures…

Starfire flashed before her eyes, and she winced, quickly turning her attention to the plant, gathering what she needed, being sure to push Carle's nose away when she leaned towards it every so often. "You've just gotten healthy again," she told her. "Don't do something stupid."

The Night Terror looked at her as if she'd insulted her, as if it were crazy that she'd ever be stupid enough to eat the oleander.

"Yeah, yeah," Lucy muttered, gathering the oleander up in one arm and getting to her feet, dusting her knees off and then pointing to the bush with her free arm. "Fire, Charle."

The dragon squawked at her once, then followed the order, exterminating the bush with a mere two blasts of fire. Once done, she looked at Lucy coolly, as if she'd just proven that she far more useful than her. Sighing, Lucy crouched down, scratching along her eye ridges. "Thank you, Charle," she said softly, holding out an arm and allowing the dragon to climb back up on her shoulders. "Now let's go find Wendy, and give her these herbs. I'm sure she has a bag for them, and I don't want to smell like some sort of dragon plague all day long.

Charle didn't respond this time, as she usually would, but instead looked up, letting out another sound that was less irritable this time, and more of reluctant welcome. Lucy followed her gaze, curious, only to find a red shape descending over her. Charle darted off of her, and Lucy barely had time to take a step in the intention of running away before claws wrapped around her midsection and she was yanked into the air, screaming.

"NAAATSUUUU!" she cried, most of her voice swept away by the wind. "PUT ME DOWN!" She wiggled in the dragons claws, and Igneel made a grumbling noise, moving his head down to look at her accusingly. She could practically hear him now: _Move too much, girl, and I drop you._ From just behind Igneel's head, a pink tuft of hair popped up, a tuft of hair that had somehow seemed to have grown into a mane again while Natsu had been away.

"Hiya, Luce!" he yelled, "I wanna show you somethin' awesome!" He held his hand out, and after a moment of reluctant glaring, Lucy took it. After all, she was thousands of feet up in the air on this boy's dragon. She'd knock him out when they were safe on the ground again, and she was less likely to free fall.

When he was sure that Natsu had a tight hold of her, Igneel released her body. Automatically, they both tightened their grip on each other's arms as gravity forced her to swing down. Inwardly growling, she swung her legs up, the combined strength of them both getting her on the saddle behind Natsu after only a few moments, arms tight around his waist to keep herself steady. A few moments that had been too well practiced for it to have been the first time.

Naturally, it was then Lucy realized she'd lost the oleander. "Natsuuu," she growled, tightening her arms around him to the point that she hoped it was uncomfortable. "You made me lose all the oleander!"

Natsu jumped slightly, looking back at her with a slightly fearful glance that she would never cease to be proud about being the cause of. "You lost what?"

"Blue Oleander? The one we found a while back on-"

Charle chose that moment to reappear, dropping the given blue flower in the wind just before Natsu's face, letting out a squawk of amusement as it was yanked through the air right into his face.

"POISON FLOWER!" he screeched, taking his hands off of the handles set into Igneel's face and pawing at it rapidly, sending it flying off in the wind. Charle disappeared after it.

"Yeah, that one," Lucy said, rolling her eyes and taking the flower directly from Charle as she returned, as well as the others she'd managed to catch with it. "Now, land. I need to give these back to Wendy. _Then_ you can show me whatever it is."

"Fiiinnne," Natsu groaned, leaning on Igneel's horns to turn him back in the direction from which they'd come. "That's probably where Happy went anyway."

"Think he's realized yet that Charle came up after me?" Lucy replied with a smile, leaning forward and setting her head on his shoulder. Despite all she'd gone through in the past, flying still got the best of her, especially when it was with Natsu. He'd keep her safe, even if he did something stupid like flip unexpectedly. After all, that's what best friends were for, right?

Happy, just as Natsu had predicted, met them on the ground, a fish jammed in his jaws. He'd perched himself on Wendy's shoulder, though the young Terrible Terror took off at the sight of Charle, practically knocking the small herbalist over. Letting out an indignant squawk, Charle flew off, presumably to go hide behind Grandine, as she often tended to. Lucy released Natsu from her grasp, smiling as Igneel lowered himself onto his belly, setting his head gently on the ground for her.

"Thank you," she told him, patting his neck after she'd gotten off. Igneel snorted, smoke clouding the air for a moment as he blinked happily at her. "Here are the herbs, Wendy. They might be a bit windblown because of this _idiot."_ The last part came out in a bit of a hiss, an expression of her exasperation with the pink-haired boy.

"That's okay, Lucy!" Wendy replied, holding out a bag to her. "Just put them in here. Did Charle destroy the bush?"

"She did," Lucy replied, moving over and dropping the flowers where she'd been indicated to.

"Why are you collecting the poison flowers anyway?" Natsu asked, sounding a bit disgruntled. "I don't want Igneel getting sick cause those are in the village."

A smile came to Lucy's face at the rare and far-between proof that Natsu actually thought ahead at times. "It's for Juvia's Scauldron, just in case any dragons _do_ eat some Oleander. Otherwise, it's kept in that dragon-proofed chest you brought back from the Ship Graveyard a while back."

"Oh," Natsu said, sounding entirely uninterested. Leaning forward against Igneel's horns, he smiled. "So can we go now?"

"Go where?" Wendy asked, having sat down to sort the herbs and check they'd gotten it all. Smiling, Lucy reached over and plucked a spare leaf out of her hair before handing to her.

"Good question. He didn't even _tell_ me, he just yanked me off of the ground like dragon would a fish out of the sea." She ended the statement with a pointed glare in the given subject's direction, and he crouched down behind his dragon's head, eyes wide.

"But I found a new species!"

Both girls paused. It had been years upon years since a new species had been discovered, not since the latter end of Chief Hiccup's time, before his daughter Mavis had taken over and redesigned their ship's sails.

"What sort of new species?" she asked, suspicious it might just be Natsu mistaking a rarer dragon for something they hadn't seen. After all, it'd happened before.

Natsu smiled, coming out from his hiding place and returning to his original position leaned over Igneel's horns. "Come with me and find out."


End file.
